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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27745435">Last Ones Out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwCoffeeNo/pseuds/AwCoffeeNo'>AwCoffeeNo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Walking Dead &amp; Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, alternative endings, post-Issue No. 192</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:00:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>587</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27745435</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwCoffeeNo/pseuds/AwCoffeeNo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Things happen a little differently at the end of Rick's life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rick Grimes/Negan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Last Ones Out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rick supposes he gets lucky. </p><p>The first shot wakes him from his sleep, but by some miracle, misses. He wakes to the smell of gunpowder, and the sight of Sebastian, gun shaking in his hands, who has come to kill him in his sleep without so much as a word. </p><p>He’s been shot before. Instinct kicks in: when Sebastian steadies his hands, and moments later, shoots him, he collapses back down to the bed before the pain even hits him, and rolls blindly for the floor. He falls down, and hears as Sebastian fires again, and feels as the bullet goes into his shoulder. </p><p>Stiller than stone, he lies there on the floor. Not breathing, not blinking.  </p><p>Sebastian stands over him, waiting, watching. Waiting for him to try to get up, but he doesn’t. Waiting for him to move, but he doesn’t. Even when the pain hits him like an avalanche, he is utterly silent, motionless. His eyes burn where he’s fixed them on the muddy toes of Sebastian’s boots. </p><p>Sebastian turns and leaves. </p><p>After Sebastian leaves, he loses time. Maybe he blacks out -- minutes or hours, he couldn’t tell. </p><p>But when he wakes up, he’s alone. Blessedly, miraculously alone, and with the strength to pull himself from the blood-slick floor. </p><p>Outside, it is in the darkest hours of the night. He has to leave, and now. </p><p>-- </p><p>Negan finds Rick at the edge of town. </p><p>Rick hasn’t seen the other man these five years together, but this older, grayer Negan pulls Rick into his home without hesitation like they’ve been friends all their lives. </p><p>Rick thinks it’s kinda funny, really, and he’s laughing about it. He’s delirious with pain, pleasantly lightheaded, laughing and laughing. But Negan begs and begs him to be still, eyes glazed over with panic: “Please, Rick, I don’t know what to do. You need a doctor, a real doctor.” </p><p>Rick gestures loosely around the run-down old house, and the clutter all around them (years of mis-maintenance), and to Negan, too. “At least I’m gonna die with -- well, gonna die with someone I -- I don’t completely hate.” </p><p>“You don’t gotta die,” Negan says wetly. Rick realizes through his haze that the other man is crying. There’s blood all over his hands. Rick’s blood. There’s so much of it. “We can still -- we can still --” </p><p>“Maybe it’s time for me to go,” Rick says. “Think it --” a cough, painful, choking, “I think it might be time.” He picks up steam after this, beginning to believe his own words  ‘M glad you’re here. You can put me down when I go. It’s better if it’s you. Don’t let Carl see me like this. Don’t let any of them see me like this.” </p><p>Negan’s hands are on his chest, desperately pressing a dishcloth down against the hole in Rick’s chest even as blood soaks through it undeterred. “Stop that,” Rick adds. “You’re just makin’ it hurt worse.” </p><p>He grabs Negan’s hands, surprised at the strength he still has left in him, and fixes the other man with his gaze.“Don’t let me turn.” </p><p>That’s the last thing Rick remembers saying. He remembers Negan laughed after he said that, absolutely hysterical. Or maybe it hadn’t been a laugh. He remembers Negan was starting to say something, as he began to fade in and out of consciousness. He’s not sure if he’d have been able to understand it regardless through Negan’s tears. It started with something he didn’t hear, and ended in “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>fuck u robert kirkman</p></blockquote></div></div>
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